Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pelosi Pushes For Senate Reconciliation

She continued, "Put it this way, the present system is unsustainable. We can no longer afford it. It's about the character of our country as Sen. Kennedy has said. We will make every effort to have a health care bill. But we will make progress whatever it is. One way or another we will go forward with that."

There is an even more interesting twist. The Nation's David Corn tweeted that Pelosi supports reconciliation. Pelosi wants the Senate to start the reconciliation process. After Scott Brown was elected to the Senate, Pelosi made it clear she was not going to make a last minute push to finish the health care bill. The majority of Pelosi's caucus feels to the health care bill is too corporatist and lacks true reform. The House Democrats would rather kill a bad health care bill than run on the current version. President Obama has used the 60 filibuster proof votes to masks his attempts to stripthe bill of the public option. Max Baucus, Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson are faced with the unenviable task of either voting against reconciliation of siding with health care industry lobbyists. I do not feel their pain.

Update: Rep. Anthony Weiner tells Talking Points Memo the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are disorganized about how to go on the reconciliation process.

"The idea of doing the Senate bill and then doing the reconciliation on spec just to see what happens--I don't think anyone really thinks that's a good idea," Weiner said. "I don't know if the Senate literally has to move first, but at least they have to give us the high sign on what it is that they can do and can't do. And we're not getting much guidance from them, and we're also not getting much guidance from the mothership about what the White House really wants, and what they're prepared to push for, etc."

Weiner adds that Reid doesn't know from "issue to issue" if he has the votes. The White House and Reid continue to behave as if Democrats are in the minority.